In the glorious city of Barcelona, it occurred to me that Spain is a country that political correctness forgot. Here people smoke cigarettes and cigars as they walk and talk and eat in restaurants. Their diet is almost entirely based on footprint-heavy meat or ecologically questionable species of fish. They spend much of their time… Continue reading A small lesson in happiness from Barcelona
Read moreIn the winter issue of The Author, the house magazine of the Society of Authors, I contributed to the gaiety of the season by considering some of the things which can go wrong for an author trying to get a book published…. There are now two types of writing life. In one, authors write, get… Continue reading Seven Things That Can Go Wrong For a Writer
Read moreIf ever there were a place on earth which proves that natural conservation requires human ruthlessness, it is the small, apparently perfect Lord Howe Island, off the east coast of Australia. Lord Howe, which is run by a board of local families working with the state government, offers the world a lesson in environmental micro-management.… Continue reading To the Lord Howe rat I take off my hat
Read moreAn odd, apparently light-hearted conversation from the weekend has been bothering me. At a dinner, a bright, opinionated woman from London, on a weekend in the country, had been amused to see roadside signs objecting to a wind turbine development outside the village. What was wrong with these people? She wondered. She put up with… Continue reading The cheerful prejudice of the town-dweller
Read moreTwo of the great playwrights of their generation meet for dinner. A renowned biographer, married to one of them, records the event in her diary. “Dinner with Tom and Miriam Stoppard. Harold: ‘I don’t plan my characters’ lives.’ Then to Tom: ‘Don’t you find they take over sometimes?’ Tom: ‘No’.” Lady Antonia Fraser is about… Continue reading Portrait of the playwright as a loving husband
Read moreA small moment of shame has occurred. I have earned a mention in the Independent’s Errors and Omissions column. As the name of the column implies, no appearance in Errors and Omissions is likely to be good news, and this was no exception. I was taken to task by its author John Rentoul for opening… Continue reading An error, an omission, a confession
Read moreOne of the easiest ways for a British writer to gain cheap credibility with readers is to sneer at his fellow-countrymen. Foreigners like these acts of literary self-abuse because they make them feel smug. The English love them even more for the humiliation, so appealing to our national taste for masochism, which they provide. … Continue reading Do the British really loathe each other?
Read moreIn a conveniently neat Old Year/New Year package, the government has provided evidence as to why, on the big questions of policy, it is not to be trusted. Old year. Three days before Christmas, an excellent time to bury bad news, the business secretary Peter Mandelson proposed, in a letter to the chair of the… Continue reading University – the job sausage-machine of New Labour
Read moreThis new form of communication expresses feelings in mini-grunts
Read moreImagine, for a moment, a Christmas TV special produced by someone who has courageously decided to break with tradition. Jeremy Paxman is in the chair and among the guests gathered for yuletide are Sir Mick Jagger, Tracey Emin, Andy Murray, Russell Brand and Lord Mandelson. A Christmas message, sent by satellite from Barbados, is contributed… Continue reading Time for TV to cut down on the Yule factor
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